Wednesday, October 31, 2012

True Blood: Eats, Drinks, and Bites from Bon Temps (Chronicle Books) represents the ultimate creative full circle. What is now an immensely popular television series began as the Southern Vampire Mystery Series by Charlaine Harris. The first book in the series, Dead Until Dark, debuted in 2001. Then came True Blood the television series in 2008. And now, four years later, we have the -- wait for it -- cookbook, co-authored by associate produced Gianna Sobol and creator, writer and producer of the series, Allan Ball. As such, this is an official series cookbook -- quite a few steps beyond “inspired by” -- and thus includes cast photos and production stills, and writing (ahem) straight from the mouths of Sookie and her pals.

Of course, being that producers and television writers tend not to be noted chefs, the authors had some help with the actual recipes. Though attributed to various series characters, the recipes were actually created by Marcelle Bienvenue, co-author of the bestselling New Orleans heritage cookbook, Cooking Up A Storm.